We Still Do Not Know What To Call Russian Intelligence

President Vladimir Putin, second right, and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, right, visit the Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate in Moscow, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006. Vladimir Putin on Wednesday visited a newly-built Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate, known under its Russian acronym, GRU. (ITAR-TASS, Dmitry Astakhov, Presidential Press Service)

Mark Galeotti, War On the Rocks: We Don't Know What To Call Russian Intelligence And That May be A Problem

As I write this, Russian military intelligence doesn’t have a chief. Perhaps more perplexingly, no one seems entirely sure what it’s called, either. And yet this matters.

On January 3, director of military intelligence Colonel General Igor Sergun died suddenly of congestive heart failure. He was a relatively young 58, but had been suffering from overwork, and some have suggested that there was talk of transferring him, or putting him — like his ill-starred predecessor, General Shlyakhturov — on medical furlough. Some richly implausible and poorly supported tales to the contrary, there is no reason to believe there was anything suspicious about his death.

At present, despite some hints that an outsider might be parachuted into the position — perhaps someone from the Federal Security Service (FSB) or else the Presidential Security Service (SBP), Vladimir Putin’s closest clients — it seems most likely the job will go to one of Sergun’s deputies. However, what is the job called?

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WNU Editor: Putin calls this organization the GRU. Russian media calls it GRU. And I have been told by those who have worked/served in the GRU that it is still called the GRU. Case closed. But as to what is the future of the GRU .... I suspect that it is an organization that is going to be very busy in the years to come .... especially in view of the many conflicts that are now brewing on Russia's borders and a renewed focus on the role that special forces can play. Just like the U.S. .... there is a shift away from imposing a large military footprint in conflicts to that of a more quiet and subtle approach. Bottom line .... Russia's GRU Spetsnaz units are going to very busy in the years to come..